California's conflicted voters

One can read the latest poll results and decide that Californians are either confused or have short attention spans, based on the seemingly divergent views those who were polled express about the condition of our state. And there's precious little time for the governor to lead the charge for fiscal responsibility.

I don't see any dichotomies at all.

Those who support Schwarzenegger want the budget crisis resolved without higher taxes. That was his overwhelming mandate.

Those same folks don't want further indebtedness and want the budget to be "capped" to avoid a repeat of the current crisis.

Fieled Poll results are notorious for their liberal skew which explains the reported majority desire to increases taxes on the rich. Increasing the rate of sales taxes has the support of moderate and conservative pragmatists because; 1) increased taxes are inevitable under current circumstances, 2) it taxes the poor who consume a great deal of the state's budget and 2) it deflects the possibility of substantial increases in personal income tax rates.

Prop 56 is popular because it appears to remove the legislative impasses of the past few years and favors the electoral majority.

Were there an organized and well funded opposition to Props 56, 57 and 58 none would pass in March. Schwarzenegger could use his bully pulpit expansively but if the facts were widely known his efforts would fail miserably.

This apparent confusion in understandable in a political atmosphere where the right to vote is indiscriminate, and ignorance exacts no penalty. Davis was elected twice, even after running up an unconscionable State deficit for purely self-serving poltical purposes.

The number of voters is minuscule during critical elections to establish long range trends. Voters don't understand the implications that bond issues are cummulative and usually decades long. Votes are decided directly proportionally to the money spend airing clearly fraudulent commercials, which remain unchallenged. Politicians who would foist a "Financial Responsibility Act" which accomplishes the direct opposite that the title implies should do serious jail time for fraud.

People tend to address their immediate personal problems with all the spare energy they have disposable, and the criminals among us, politicians and bureaucrats, continue their frauds unchallenged. The California gubernatorial recall, however, raises some hope that when things get seriously bad and clear, even an apathetic electorate will rise to the challenge and make the necessary changes.

Speaking for myself, Arnolds proposal for a bond issue to resolve the financial crisis has a snowball's chance in hell, unless and until he has already in place, prior to the election, a bulletproof spending cap with serious penalties attached for violating its provisions.

The time for tolerating fiscal morons to run our state, and who feel entitled to view the taxpayer as an eternal cash cow, is long over.

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